Fans of Ubisoft’s Far Cry series are surely looking forward to the latest instalment in the franchise, which is due to hit shelves in March next year.

And although Far Cry 5 will largely offer the same open-world gameplay and first-person action as the earlier games in the series, this latest instalment in the franchise not only boasts a completely different setting and enemies to deal with, but also brings several new gameplay innovations to the table.

Nonetheless, Far Cry 5’s gameplay innovations could still make it a winner next year, especially taking into account the game will feature a more reactive kind of gameplay than earlier entries in the franchise according to the game’s lead writer Drew Holmes.

This means that the game’s open-world gameplay and story will be more closely integrated this time, which is certainly a good thing. Actually, the earlier Far Cry 4 had a lot of grinding between story missions and you also had to decide when to go and do a story mission or take part in the many activities offered in the game’s open world such as hunting, races or side missions. But it looks like things will be more organic this time around thanks to Far Cry 5’s emergent gameplay.

“The goal this time around was to say, ‘is there a way that we can take that style of play and put it in the entire game?’ [Far Cry] 3 and 4 in particular, were set along a little gated paths. You got missions that were very linear and you go and do them in order; then you’ve got the open world; you’ve got the outpost, you’ve got hunting and you got all the exploration stuff you can do. And it felt sort of separate”, Holmes told GamingBolt in an interview.

The way open-world activities and story are brought closer together in Far Cry 5 is through what Holmes calls a “resistance meter”, which can trigger story mission at certain points in time instead of you having to go to a specific location and receive a quest from a specific character.

This means that as you clear outposts, explore the world and engage in activities and side missions you keep gaining followers in your cause against the cult, and this naturally leads to new story developments in the game.

“I’m not going along and saying, ‘I’m going to do a story mission now. I’m exploring and clearing all of the stuff out,’ and then boom the story’s happening to me. I think it feels much more reactive. I am choosing to set up whatever experience I want rather than us dictating the narrative to the player”, said Far Cry 5’s lead writer.

So, will these new gameplay ideas make Far Cry 5 feel fresh enough to differentiate it from the earlier Far Cry games? This remains to be seen, although it’s clear that this could still turn out to be one of the top action games of the year when it’s released in March 2018.